Everything to Lose
by onelildustbunni
Summary: Alive in the past and dead to the present, Laura's going to fix a mistake.  616, post-X-force #13…different outcome.  Hellion and X-23.
1. Chapter 1

**Everything to Lose  
****TITLE: **Everything to Lose  
**STARRING: **Hellion/X-23  
**UNIVERSE: **616, post-X-force #13…different outcome  
**RATING: **M  
**SUMMARY: **Alive in the past and dead to the present, Laura's going to fix a mistake.

* * *

**  
****1. Chapter 1—**

_July 5, 07:10 Angel's Aerie, the Colorado Rocky Mountains  
_  
The girl gazed over the side of the balcony into the beautiful forest surrounding the cottage, her expression sad and wistful. Which was surprising, because she was Laura Kinney, the  
Girl Without Feelings, the rock of their team of heartless assassins. When the chips came down, she was the one who could be counted on to complete whatever mission it was that Cyclops had sent them on.

Even if it involved allowing someone she cared about to die. Amazing…she _did_ care, even though this was a direct contradiction of her status as the Ice Queen. Personally, he wondered if he'd ever  
seen anyone care _more _than Laura. He surmised that the reason she was doing this was the knowledge that what she did here would allow those she loved to continue living their lives.

Laura's eyes shifted back and forth, scanning the horizon.

"Why are you watching me?" she asked, her full lips turned down at the corners.

Josh started, but was not surprised that she had detected his presence. She was, after all, Wolverine's clone.

"Because…" he swallowed. "I wanted to make sure you're OK, Laura. That was—"

"I am fine. I wish to be alone."

Josh pushed the sliding glass door out of his way and stepped onto the wooden veranda, his boot making a _plunk! _sound. "Like hell you are. Laura…he _died." _

The calm faded, faster than the changing of a traffic light. There it was, the flaring of the nostrils, the glassy-eyed look. "Do not. Do _not_ start," Laura warned, her face pale.

"You're going to have to face the facts," Josh said gently. "It's no use running from it. _Believe me, _I know exactly what you're—"

"No." Laura's chin trembled slightly. "You do not. You—" she paused, avoiding tears through willpower, then continued. "You do not understand. I do not want to talk about this."

"I do understand. Remember…Laurie?"

Saying the name caused a pang to run through him, but Josh knew that Laura needed the help right now—and that was more important than his own emotional health, at the moment. He'd  
had time to mull it over, decide what he was going to do about it; Laura was still in shock. The blood on the railing quite close to her was proof—she'd been cutting herself, cutting away all the  
bad thoughts, the boiling sensation, the burn in her eyes. The guilt at surviving and the need for clarity.

He knew a little about that himself. It wouldn't kill her—he didn't know if _anything _could kill her—but he felt compelled to try and help her, to ease her suffering in any way he could.

"Yes," Laura mumbled, her eyes cast downwards. "I could have saved him."

"No." Josh approached the railing. "You couldn't have done any better than you did. That's what I thought—when Laurie—_god—_when she was hurt. Killed. I thought…I still think it's my fault. I could  
have healed her…I could've dug deeper. But you…you couldn't have reached him any faster."

"Yes. I could have." Laura looked at Josh directly, and there was a grim finality to her features. "I could have executed a side-kick with my foot claw extended, simultaneously side-cutting my  
second opponent's jugular. Free sooner, I would have been able to close the distance between myself and you within five seconds, dealt with _your_ opponent in two, and you would have reached…  
them…ten seconds sooner. In time to heal…" She faltered. "I failed my mission. Kimura…where is Kimura? She needs to punish me."

"No!" Josh said. "If anything, it's _my_ fault, Laura. I should've just slipped away—left him holding my jacket—_anything_ to get there faster. I'm sorry."

Laura was silent. Then… "Please. I want to be _alone._"

"But—" Josh said. The glass door slid open simultaneously; it was Logan, his features pinned up in a scowl. "Foley…get inside. You're needed."

"But—" Josh said again, feeling helpless.

"No buts. Do it. Nori's in need of a little TLC."

Josh sighed and then relented. Logan lingered for a second, his eyes on Laura's back, his scowl deepening. "Told ya, clone. I told ya—"

"_Alone,_" Laura said, her voice much sharper.

The glass door snapped shut, and the girl remained in solitude.

**…**

_She is there again, at that horrible moment. Her fist has just pressed against her opponent's chest, her claws deep inside his torso, her eyes trained over his shoulder on the scene  
before her; hands wrap around her head and twist viciously. _

"_UGH!" She cries, hearing a loud _**SNAP!**

_Crumpling to the floor, she realizes she is out of commission. NO. Not now. The mission…Julian…with herculean effort, she reaches up to her head with her hand, ignoring the thrills of pain, and rights it. _

_**CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH, **__her broken vertebrae realigning._

_"HEAL THEM!" Logan shouts at Elixir as he swipes the head off of his opponent. Laura's eyes shift, she can see that Josh is otherwise occupied, grappling with a man that is trying to put a gun to his head._

_In the background she sees green light—and hears a noise. __**VRRM—**__it is much louder than she is used to it being. _

_She forces herself to her feet, stumbles forward. Towards Elixir—he can fix it—he—_

"_Laura—" she turns despite herself, as if conditioned to the voice. Five feet away. Julian, his eyes like small green suns, almost blinding to look at even inside the green bubble he is encasing himself  
in. "I should've told y—" his eyes drown out his face. _

"_Do not use your powers! You will—" Laura says frantically, but it is too late—the floor shakes with an explosion, and she falls on her behind, horrified by what she is seeing. The green bubble fills with black  
smoke and dissipates, releasing its contents. Which include a few fragments. _

_One hits her in the face, softly, on her cheek. __**Slap! **__Like a tiny insult._

_He hadn't stopped shielding, until his brain disintegrated. He'd contained the explosion, defying the plans for him to act as a suicide bomber._

_She remains seated, staring at the mess as the fight continues around her (after a moment's pause); she then gingerly reaches out and touches the black lump. It's hard to tell what it was—a piece of  
rib? A finger? A toe? A—she cups it in her hand and her eyebrows draw together._

_Her fingers close around the item._

_And she goes somewhere else—_

"AHHH!" Laura sat up, her eyes wide, hugging the covers. The dream that's been haunting her for the past week—when Julian literally exploded, having been injected with the Legacy strain variant. Her  
heart pounded in her ears as she took deep breaths, trying to calm the monster in her chest. She'd had plenty of bad dreams—she was, after all, X-23—but this reoccurring nightmare impacted her more  
than anything else in her life. Even her mother's death paled slightly in comparison.

"Dream," she whispers to herself, after a few moments, then lies back down. She should rest; she must be alert for tomorrow…


	2. Chapter 2

**2. Chapter 2—  


* * *

**

**_July 6, 17:36 Utopia_**

Laura closed the door softly behind herself, the device heavy in her palm, Cyclops's instructions heavy in her ears. _Find Cable, retrieve the baby, _he'd said. _If Cable won't come willingly…won't give it up…kill him._

This wasn't what weighed heavily in her ears, however. It had been more of a sensation that something would cause herself to doubt her orders—even, maybe, disobey them.

She couldn't put her finger on it.

**…**

**_April 13, 11:05 Seattle, the future_**

It came to her when she was watching Logan argue with Cable, talking about the time travel, how his device was broken, how he could only move forwards in time—not back.

Not back.

_But she could. _

Laura inhaled sharply through her nose, her bicep flexing slightly under the time device strapped to her arm. It was all rushing together, with an almost audible _click!_ Beast. Beast and his science team, who  
referred to themselves as the X-Club, had already done this—gone back in time—to witness the origins of one of the first mutants, in the hopes of understanding more about the mutant genome.

They'd gone back a hundred years.

Laura would need only two weeks of time taken back.

Could she alter how it had happened, reach Elixir faster and _throw_ him at the afflicted boy? Could she save Julian, the only being she'd ever met with the power to cause pleasurable sensations to her  
body (as opposed to negative painful ones)?

Laura didn't understand a lot about what she felt for the boy—what she _had_ felt—but she knew so much as to know she felt lost at the idea that he no longer existed, that he had been a casualty of the  
war. The snuffing of his life had been even more shaking to her than the death of her mother; when Sarah Kinney had died at her claws, she'd paused for a moment to sob at her side, then her  
survival instinct had taken over.

Self preservation.

The urge to survive had suddenly dramatically subsided at the moment Julian had ceased to exist as a solid tangible being and had become a cloud of smoke and a splatter of fragments. She'd sat in stunned  
silence; catatonia; staring into the air, tears rolling down her cheeks, and had stayed that way even when an assailant had grabbed her head and twisted it viciously, snapping her neck for the second time  
in a short period. She only knows this because Josh informed her later, that after the fight had finished and they'd collected the wounded, he'd had to heal her.

Apparently her healing factor had been overwhelmed.

The rest of the mission passed by in a blur for her; she felt irritated at having to wait to test this theory. Countless opponents fell to her determined claws, and finally they reached the point where everyone  
was taking their devices off.

Laura was the first one; she flung off her device in a vengeance and ignored the rush of nausea that accompanied the motion through time. Everything was bright and distorted, but her goal was  
clear; she walked briskly even though she hasn't quite finished materializing in the present.

"_What the—" _Someone in the hallway as she passed them, just beginning to flesh into reality.

She saw the door before her and her hand solidified in time to grasp the handle.

The door to the science sector of Utopia.

**…**

**_July 6, 17:45 Utopia_**

"Ah. Laura." Dr. McCoy didn't even turn around, didn't sound surprised to have his door flung open dramatically. He was hunched over a microscope on the opposite side of the room.

Laura couldn't speak, her nostrils flaring, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Finally she collected herself enough to speak. "I require—"

"I thought you might," Dr. McCoy said, still not turning around.

Laura blinked. He had anticipated this?

"As a doctor who has sworn an oath, I cannot give you what you desire, Laura," the doctor said, his voice grim. "You understand, of course. The paradoxes that might arise could harm many."

She swallowed. "I don't care," she managed, her voice strained. Her throat felt tight and constricted.

"I know you don't." Dr. McCoy turned around now, and his expression was that of deep sadness. "It's on the table, there. Please…I will say you broke in and took it. That it was a surplus. What  
happened was not right, and I can't bear the knowledge." Dr. McCoy was referring to the fact that the boy had died due to sacrifices made by Cyclops, calling a number of the troops away at a  
critical moment in the rescue attempt of Hellion and several other students.

Wordlessly, Laura moved to the table, her hand outstretched.

**…**

**_June 22 13:51 Utopia_**

Time slows, and sweat beads on her forehead. She reaches a hand out to steady herself, against the wall. She has time travelled two weeks back, to the day before the incident—the last time she  
saw Julian in safe circumstances, on Utopia.

_He'd passed her in the hall, along with Santo and Victor, talking about something. She'd been on the way to the cafeteria, for lunch; the hackles on the back of her neck had risen at the sound of his voice  
(pleasantly melodious to her ears) and his scent in her nostrils (some commercial fragrance that she didn't mind, along with his own natural perspiration which she found quite agreeable)._

Laura runs towards the hallway now, against the direction he will be walking, her heart hammering in her chest. She _must_ succeed—she's been given a chance to save him—failure is not an option,  
even less so than if Kimura was here to threaten her. Her boots squeak on the shiny surface of the floor—she must time it to avoid herself, or she might create a paradox of sorts.

She stops, seeing herself from behind as she pushes the door to that hallway open. She leans against the wall in wait, steeling herself.

"…don't miss math…" Santo's voice, sonorous, becoming close enough for her ears to pick out the exact words. About two corridors away, then; perhaps closer, as the Utopia hallways are constructed  
well and might dampen sound quite effectively.

"They'll get the academics up and running soon enough," Julian says in response, pushing open the first door. _Crrrrk. _"You know Miss Frost. She was born teaching a class."

"Think she was born with something else?" Santo asks, an attempt at humor.

"Nah, she said it herself…she's had a nose job," Victor chimes in.

"You are so _totally _gay," Santo says accusingly.

"Wha—just because I don't obsess over boobs? I'm offended! I could be a leg man, or an ass man—"

"_Definitely _an ass man," Julian says, as Santo laughs.

_Crrrk, _the door she is watching begins to open, and she catches her first sight of him in two weeks. She freezes—her throat hurts, and there is a sharp pain between her ears, behind her eyes.

She didn't count on her sudden inability to function.

"Hey, X," Julian says, giving her a small wave as they pass her. She presses against the wall, pale-faced and unable to respond.

The group reaches the end of the hall and goes to turn, then Santo freezes.

"What the hell—" he turns around and looks towards where Laura was, but she is gone. "GUYS!" he bellows, his voice full of fear. "I THINK THIS PLACE IS HAUNTED!"

**…**

Outside, Laura crouches against a rock, trying to unfreeze herself. She is wasting time, but she needs to be coherent when she approaches him. _Remain calm. _She looks out across the water, sees  
the explosion again in her mind's eye, and shivers, feeling ill.

"You alright there, sugar?" A woman's voice. Laura looks up and sees Rogue.

She still can't speak.

Rogue smiles. "Cat got your tongue?"

It's a beautiful day in Utopia; the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the wind is blowing softly.

_Calm. _Laura breathes deeply. "I am…fine."

She's not, but she will be. She stands up and walks away, leaving Rogue scratching her head. She doesn't have time to get caught up in idle discussion.

**…**

**_June 22 14:15 Utopia_**

It is a simple enough task to track the boy to the small beach on the Southern tip, playing football with his companions of earlier. Laura holds her elbows as she navigates the rocks on the beach, suddenly  
uncertain as to how she will warn him of the circumstances.

Do not leave the island? You will die if you do, I have seen it? _Why is she concerned about this? _

Because Hellion is going to brush off her warning. She knows this, instinctively; he will not believe her.

She tries anyways.

"X! What the hell—" Santo yells, seeing her first. He hasn't forgotten the incident earlier, having seen her past counterpart in the previous hall about thirty seconds before seeing _her, _the future counterpart.

Going in the opposite directions simultaneously.

Is this a time paradox?

Laura ignores him, looks at Julian, who has obviously been informed of the circumstances because he is giving her a more disturbed look than usual.

"I wish to speak to you," she calls.

"Don't go with her! She's a shape shifter or somethin'! I'll bet my—" Santo bellows.

"Wouldn't a shape shifter imitate someone you _like_ being around?" Viktor counters logically.

Julian looks thoughtful. "If you've got something to say to me…say it here," he says.

Laura pauses. Then…

"I have come from the future. I have seen you die. Do not, under any circumstances, leave the island."

The boys, all three of them, stare at her. Then Santo grins. "Looks like someone found out about your date, Keller!"

Julian flushes slightly, but looks amused. "You really think I'm going to buy that?" he asks her.

"…" Laura doesn't know what to say.

"Let's go to the other side," Victor suggests. "X creeps me out a bit. No offense, X."

The boys leave Laura standing on the shore.

**…**

**_June 22 22:57 Utopia_**

By that nightfall, Laura has a new strategy. She cannot go to Cyclops, or any of his 'officers' for help, seeing as what she has done is absolutely forbidden. Using the time devices for personal gain.

Laura knows that there is personal gain in this, in protecting the boy. She will admit it to herself.

But her past experiences with Julian have taught her that he is much more willing to listen to her if she catches him alone, without the influence and opinions of his friends to affect his decisions.

She waits in his quarters, a small room he shares with another mutant that she is not too familiar with (not recognizing their appearance; only their scent, which she has smelled around the  
island). His roommate enters the room and goes to bed, unaware that she is lurking in the closet (amongst Julian's pleasant-smelling shirts and a few pairs of pants).

After a while, she becomes engrossed in the scent of his shirts, a habit she has developed in the past two weeks, whenever she is in Utopia and not at Angel's log cabin (where all the X-Force  
operations are based from): she goes into Julian's closet and chooses garments—as they have not yet cleared out his room—and lays an outfit down on top of a pillow on the bed, then curls  
beside it and pretends he is there and not elsewhere, not a cloud of smoke-

"AHH!"

Her eyelids snap open and her eyes meet Julian's astonished ones in the semi-dark, her nose still pressed against his shirt. She's been too distracted to notice the sound of his entrance, the gentle  
slide of the closet door as he reached in to throw his shirt in the hamper beside her.

Julian's cry of surprise has caused his roommate to roll over in his sleep, but not wake.

"_X?" _he hisses after a second. "What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?"

"Warning you," Laura replies, a little calmer now for some reason. "You are in danger."

"Of the stalker in my closet," Julian points out ironically, one eyebrow raised slightly. Something she'd missed. She only realizes she has reached out and touched it when she feels him stiffen.

"Laura…" he says uncertainly.

She pulls her fingers back, an inch, but not all the way, and looks at him hungrily, the way only someone who has loved and lost can do while watching a video or gazing at a photograph of the  
aforementioned lost one. A yearning to turn back the clock.

"You said…before…you should have told me something," she says, her voice softer than normal.

Julian looks uncomfortable, disturbed. "You're scaring me. Please…tell me why you're doing this."

"I already informed you," Laura says, a bit annoyed.

"You don't need to make up a lame excuse," Julian says, and he looks embarrassed. His eyebrows draw together. "I know how you, uh, feel about me, Laura. I don't know how you found out about Anne,  
but I can't let you control my life and stop me from doing what I want."

Laura pauses. "You think I am untruthful."

"It's a pretty far-fetched story," Julian says bluntly. "Finding you, uh, in my closet really doesn't help matters. I think you'd better go and—"

"You. You are the next target," Laura interrupts.

"Target of _what?_" Julian looks down at her with a humoring expression.

"The Leper Queen," Laura says. "If you meet 'Anne' as you have planned, she will drop a sedative into your beverage. Her associates will rendezvous as planned and take you captive in a van; you will be tied up,  
gagged, and drugged until reaching New York, the U.N. building. Shortly before release you will be injected with strain 88 of the Legacy Virus, and will prematurely explode while myself and a team are  
attempting to extract you."

Julian blinks.

"Why should I believe you?" he asks after a minute.

Laura holds his gaze. "I do not lie," she says, her body language supporting this statement.

Julian considers this. Can he really imagine Laura making up a fantastic story to prevent his date with Anne out of jealousy? Does she even _know _what jealousy is? He knows she's got something for him, but he's  
really not sure what it is—it doesn't seem to be a human emotion, anyways.

She's pretty much a robot.

"Okay," he says after a moment. She lets out a breath she doesn't realize she's been holding.

"If you weren't X, I wouldn't have found you in my closet," he adds, in answer to her unspoken question: how could he be sure of her identity? He looks amused; offended, she pushes her way past him.

"Aw, come on…I was joking," Julian says, even though she can detect the lie in his voice.

_Laura—I should've told you—_

_**KA-BOOOM!**_

__Laura turns her head abruptly to look at him again, to reassure herself that he is still here, still breathing.

She sees his bared ribcage rise and finds it reassuring.

"It does not matter," she says softly.

Silence. Julian seems to feel awkward; he shifts. "So…what? I just don't leave the island and I'll be safe?"

"Presumably," Laura says. "I will stand watch by your door to ensure this."

Julian appears uncertain about this (in fact, he thinks he's in more danger with her nearby than if he left the island) but Laura has already turned, heading for the door.

He stands for a second after she is gone, fingering the shirt still in his hands. X seems very upset, very genuinely concerned. Is it possible that he is dead in the future?

_Lightning can't strike the same place twice, _he thinks dismissively, meaning that he has already had a close call when he was shishkabobbed earlier that year.

He goes to bed.

**…**

**_June 23 04:51 Utopia_**

She is not sure at what point of the night she has closed her eyes, but they have indeed slid shut; she awakes with a start, with a watchful feeling, like being woken to a hand clapped across her  
mouth, except there is nobody else present. It is semi-dark in the corridor; the emergency lights are on, illuminating basic shapes with their soft glow. Laura can see perfectly fine in the dark, with  
her enhanced vision. The sound of the overhead hall lights turning off must have woken her.

There is trouble afoot. The hackles on the back of her neck are standing straight up. Something will happen, in the next few minutes.

_**KAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

Laura stands up in one smooth movement. Trouble. But—this was not what happened when she was at the U.N. building, trying to save Julian and Nori from being the next Legacy Virus victims (and failed).

Utopia was not attacked.

The door beside her opens, and the two inhabitants come out (in accordance with most of the other doors in the corridor. The warning sirens have started up, and red lights have lazily  
started twirling in the hallway corners.

"We are under attack," Laura says apprehensively, as Julian looks at her in question.

"Who?" he asks.

"I do not know. We will have to find out."

**…****  
**

They make their way to the main hall, as per emergency instructions, Laura's instincts dictating that she remain close to the boy she has sworn to herself to protect; however, this may prove more difficult  
than anticipated. More explosions sound off in the distance, and the ground shakes occasionally, indicating that this is no small event.

"Holy shit," Julian says under his breath. He has just looked out one of the port-hole windows.

Laura joins him, and her eyes widen.

_Sentinels._

Twenty of them in the sky.

And a Nimrod.

"I must get you to safety," she says.

Julian gives her an incredulous look. "You're on crack…I'm not leaving my friends _now!_"

"This is not how it happened," Laura says. "I believe my temporal displacement has affected the timeline in some way. I cannot allow the sacrifice to be for nothing." She grabs his arm; he grabs her  
wrist and pries her fingers away.

"No. Spelled N-O. We stay…and we fight." His eyes are full of fury. And…a glimmer of excitement?

He _wants _to fight.

"Julian—" she begins to argue, but Nori and Cessily have found them, and are shrieking and pushing her out of the way, overloading both of them with information.

**…**

**_June 23 11:51 Utopia_**

Dawn has broken, and daylight has spread in the sky; Laura is covered with ash and soot—and blood—her hair is tangled with debris, and her clothes are shredded. To her dismay, she has become  
separated from her charge; Julian took to the air and left her behind, as per Cyclops's orders to all aerial units.

Normally, Laura would focus entirely on the fight. She is…distracted now. This is not right; not only has she had to be careful that her past and present selves do not meet, but this battle should not  
be occurring at all. She has the uneasy sensation that the battle is some sort of retaliation for what she has done. That somehow, events will repeat themselves.

She needs to find Julian, _now, _and resume protecting him.

**…**

_**June 23 12:05 Utopia**  
_**  
**"CESSILY!" Laura calls as the metal girl snakes in an elongated form, having just defeated a Sentinel with the help of Cannonball and Cyclops. "Where is Hellion?" She has looked everywhere, moving across  
the battlefield (and being shot a few times by laser beams) but cannot find the boy. She cannot smell him, either, due to the overpowering scent of BURNT and the occasional scent of charred flesh that hangs  
over the battlefield in a thick cloud of smoke.

"Oh—I dunno—did you check by the library? That's where I saw him last," Cessily replies, looping back so she is beside Laura. "He should be okay, though—he's shielding himself and he's with Rogue and Wolverine so he—"

Laura doesn't listen to the rest, already taking off in a run towards the aforementioned library. Her instincts are prickling like fire; her stomach feels tight. A gut feeling, some would say, perhaps Logan.

Outside the building, Laura looks up and sees the boy in the air, sending round green bubble-like protrusions towards a Sentinel that is stationed by the headquarters building, about a hundred feet  
away—but distance doesn't matter, due to the size. She can also see Rogue, armed with a pair of wings (presumably Angel's) and silver colored skin (Colossus) flying in circles around the intruding  
machine, her hands hooked under Wolverine's armpits.

She lets go a breath she hasn't realized she's holding. It looks like the situation is under control.

"X!" Julian has noticed her, and lowers himself slightly. "Up for a 'fastball special'?"

Laura blinks up at him, shielding her eyes. The sun is bright behind his back.

"What is a—" she begins.

But that's not the sun.

Laura's eyes widen, and Julian twists around violently in his bubble to see what's sneaking up behind him. And the answer is a rapidly expanding globe of energy, so bright it is white, emanating from the  
Nimrod that is situated in the air a couple feet away.

It swallows him whole, like his shield isn't even there; and then Laura is thrown backwards by the explosion, onto her behind.

She is pelted by shrapnel.

A fragment hits her on the cheek, softly, like a tiny insult; she closes her eyes.

**…**

**_July 6, 17:55 Utopia_**

Laura opened her eyes again, after a few minutes, and was confused by the fact that the sun was already much lower in the sky. Had she really sat still all day?

Then she clapped her hand to her arm as she realized that the strap holding her time device flush to her arm felt loose. A glance told the story: the object dangled from the strap, smoking  
slightly. It must have been damaged in the past, and she was sent back to the present, expelled like two magnets of the same polarity being pushed together.

Slowly she got to her feet, studying the landscape around herself. Several structures appeared to be demolished, but there were signs of repair already beginning. They were successful in  
repelling the attackers, then: this much was evident, by the fact that she could still see a few mutants laughing in the corner as they talked about something trivial.

**…**

**_July 6, 18:20 Utopia_**

Dr. McCoy turned as she entered the lab, which was thankfully still intact. He looked surprised to see her, and she realized, after a moment, that in this timeline, Julian had not been wrongfully  
sacrificed to the cause—and therefore Dr. McCoy would not understand why she needs a time device repaired.

"Laura!" he said, smiling in an affable manner, wiping a paw on a towel. There was a bucket of paint on the counter behind him, with a paint roller handle sticking out; he had been working on  
the wall, which on closer inspection seemed to have suffered from the attack. "How may I aid you?"

She held out the time device. "I require repairs."

Dr. McCoy's smile faded. "Is this for Cyclops's team of butchers?" he asked.

Laura paused. How convenient, a premade excuse. "Yes," she said.

"I will have nothing to do with it," Dr. McCoy said. He turned his back on her.

"No," Laura said suddenly. Since Dr. McCoy already came to the conclusion that she should alter the past, then he would be likely to agree to assist her again.

She told him, in a monotone voice—the only way she knows how—of the events she has recently experienced.


	3. Chapter 3

**3. Chapter 3—  


* * *

**

_June 22 11:11 Utopia_

Julian has just batted off his alarm clock for the third time, and is staring up at the low ceiling above his narrow bunk, as there is a shelf for his roommate to sleep above  
him. He should get up and going; his roommate is already in power management class (being a mutant with chronic control issues).

Later today, he has a date to meet on the mainland, at the _Hard Rock café_. They're going to a concert later—Foo Fighters—he has the tickets in his wallet. Along with a  
foil packet, which he's wondering if he'll get to use (for the first time ever), since Anne seems experienced in such matters, where he's mostly bluffing (but he's watched  
a lot of porn and is generally a fast learner).

His life sucked for a little while. It started when he suddenly became a member of an endangered species that was the objective of a trophy hunting safari  
(as he thinks of it). It had _really_ continued to suck when he'd nearly died—multiple times—and when he lost many of his friends to the Purifiers  
(prime hunters in the safari). It seemed that, for a while, everything was going down the shitter.

It seems like things are getting back on track now. He's home—well, as close to home as he's ever going to be, seeing as his parents have cut all contact with him and packed  
up their house. It's still great to be somewhere _familiar. _And somewhere comparatively tolerant of 'his kind', as he's now forced to consider it. Plus, the situation seems to have  
calmed down, after a rocky transition where they were driven to inhabit an island by Bolivar Trask and his men.

A somewhat-normal life could be his again, at least for a good while. The sun shines in a cloud-free sky; his remaining living friends are safe and almost happy; he's getting  
back to more regular teenaged thoughts, like getting laid, and finishing off school, and what he wants to do with his life after.

He stretches a hand behind his head, with a small grin, wondering what tonight holds. He has it all planned out. He'll whisper something in her ear—probably '_Let's go somewhere  
a little more private'_—and she'll smile at him, knowing what he's thinking (and, of course, aided by beer, because Anne has fake I.D.'s and experience using them), and she'll whisper back—

_**POP!**_

Julian is so startled that he bites his own tongue. He turns his head and sees—_Laura? _He sits up rapidly and hits his head on the low ceiling above his bed with a resounding _BONK!_

"God _damn_ it!" he snarls, momentarily distracted, then the pain clears. "What the hell are you—"

"We must leave, _now, _and get as far away from this place as possible," Laura says. She looks weird—he finally realizes it's because she's covered in soot, and ashes, and blood  
(although there are no open cuts). There are random pieces of metal tangled in her hair.

"Get dressed." Laura is at his closet now, and he blinks as she opens the door.

She's done it. X has gone bat-shit crazy. He wonders if he can manage to call the Cuckoos on the psychic phone without talking out loud, an art he's never managed perfectly. A pair  
of jeans is flung at him; he fails to catch them and they hit him in the head.

"You are taking too long," Laura adds.

"…" Julian pulls the garment off his head. Maybe he should try reasoning with her? "X…why are you in my room right now?" he asks meekly, hoping if he doesn't sound  
threatening, she won't attack him.

_WUMPF! _He reaches up in time to prevent the t-shirt from hitting him as well.

"Hurry," Laura scolds.

She sounds like he is a five-year-old misbehaving. He blinks again.

"You didn't answer me," he says, figuring that at least he can pin her against the wall with his mind if she attacks. That should buy him a minute to get into the hallway,  
even though he's only wearing boxers.

Laura straightens, having been rooting in his drawer for socks. She takes a deep breath, as if searching for patience. "You are going to die, tomorrow, at precisely 12:05 in the afternoon."

He stares. Then…"Are you planning to kill me?"

"No. Utopia will be attacked by Sentinels, seeking to kill you. Unless you depart now, and accompany me to a place of safety."

"And you know this because…" Julian trails off, waiting for a response.

"In my timeline, you are dead," Laura says. "I have witnessed your death twice now."

"That's impossible," he points out. "How can I die twice?"

"I am not certain, but I have seen it. Get dressed." Laura throws a pair of socks at him. He catches them, and throws them back. "I'm not going anywhere with you," he says calmly.

"!" Laura stamps the ground with her boot, distraught. "I have already had this discussion with you!" she says, and then it is too much, and she bursts into loud tears.

Julian is alarmed. Moments ago his life was peaceful, comparatively normal; now he has a psychopathic murderer spontaneously appear in the middle of his room, bark orders at him,  
|tell him he will die—and then reveal she is emotionally unstable.

He feels his mouth twitch, and he realizes he is about to laugh. Quickly he pushes that notion aside and reaches for his shirt. Pulling it on, he approaches the girl (who is holding her face  
in her hands and moaning something unintelligible) to do…what?

Julian reaches out gingerly, hesitates, then decides she probably won't gut him and touches her shoulder. "Hey, umm…don't cry?" he suggests, feeling useless, and therefore stupid.

Laura looks up slightly, between her fingers. "I c-chose a different sh-shirt," she sniffles.

"Pardon?" He edges towards the door.

"You didn't d-die in that one," she says.

He stops for a moment. Her eyes are very full of hurt, and slightly glazed over. There is a quality of longing about her expression—and he's reminded of the way he's seen various  
people around the mansion look after burying a friend.

Is he actually _considering _her story? Julian stops himself.

"What happened?" he asks, despite himself.

**…**

_June 22 12:34 Utopia_

Julian sighs, and rubs his still-mussed hair.

The girl, sitting on his bed with him, has methodically described every event leading up to her presence (concealing some facts, unbeknownst to him) in his room. Her story is incredible and  
terrifying—_he dies twice, still a virgin!_—and is something Cyclops should definitely be aware of, except that their 'general' wouldn't look kindly on the situation.

Up to this point, Julian hadn't even thought time travel possible; a little voice in his head spoke up. _Why not? _Everything else in his life seemed impossible. He could fly and lift things with his  
mind. He'd kissed a girl in the air. He'd gone to a school for super heroes. He'd been nearly killed several times (once when a crazy woman he thought of as Edward Scissorhand's girlfriend  
stabbed him through vital organs). He'd seen giant, flying robots. A pink robot, too.

He lives on an island sanctuary for super heroes called Utopia, for crying out loud; an island on which a mutant called Forge the Maker—whose ability was to make devices  
(like time gadgets)—lives on. The more he thinks about it, the more it all seems possible.

Julian grimaces. "So you're saying I'm like Jean Grey?"

Laura looks at him blankly.

"She dies a lot," he explains, rolling his eyes at Laura's ignorance. "It's always the TK that gets snuffed. Just tell me I don't shout 'Cyclops!' before I die."

"You don't," Laura says. "You are usually talking to me when you expire."

"I'm not a can of food," he says, annoyed.

"What should I say, then?" Laura asks.

"Uhh…pass away? Die? Go into the light?"

"You did 'go into the light'," Laura says. "Then you exploded, and an unidentifiable body part struck me on the cheek. Possible your finger, or your—"

Julian holds up his hand. "Jeez, I don't want to think about that!"

"Neither do I," Laura says stiffly. "We have wasted too much time speaking. We must _hurry._"

Suddenly Julian realizes what she has been saying, and his face pales. "You mean—it's going to happen _again? _I might die today?"

"_Yes_," Laura says in frustration.

He bounds to his feet, pulls his hair slightly, then stops. "Okay. Alright. So…what do we do?"

**…**

_June 22 1:17 Utopia_

"JULIAN!"

The boy curses inwardly—it's Cessily, and she's going to want to know what's up. He looks carefully at the ground, pretending not to hear the other girl.

This is too crazy to tell her about.

"Do not stop," Laura warns, although he is not showing any signs of doing so, the backpack hefted tightly to his shoulder, his face downturned and expression determined.

_**Sllllllllllltt! **_Cessily snakes around them and blocks their way. "Ohmigod! Hi!"

She looks back and forth between the two, an her face splits into a grin. "REALLY?" she exclaims.

Julian's eyebrows draw together. "…what?" he asks, not certain he wants to hear this.

"I'm SO happy for you!" Cessily beams.

He wonders if this could be some elaborate practical joke, the entire scenario; it would have to be if it was anyone but Laura that had delivered the punchline—because she wouldn't  
know a joke if it bit her in the ass. She'd probably try to kill it.

"Happy about what?" Laura asks for him.

"YOU!" Cessily says. "Finally, geez! You've been making sheep eyes at each other for long enough!"

"Wha—no! Where the hell did you get that idea?" Julian asks, exasperated.

"Aren't you?" the girl asks, sounding confused. "I mean…it looked like it…where are you going, anyway?"

"Uhhh, we're seeing a movie in town," Julian says.

"Cool! Can I come? What movie?" Cessily says, and before he can answer, Santo and Viktor show up.

"Yeah, what movie?" Santo bellows.

Laura looks very irritated now; he understands her completely, considering his life depends on getting away right now. He clears his throat.

"_ALONE,_" he says, then kicks himself.

"SEE?" Cessily squeals. "I called it first! Can I come to the wedding? Ooh, I'll be Laura's bridesmaid!"

"What the—you're _marrying X?_" Santo's jaw drops.

"Oh, god, _NO,_" Julian says, feeling the situation is getting completely out of hand. "Times like these, I'm not even sure why you're my friends!" He stops, realizing this might be the last time  
he sees his companions, if he doesn't survive whatever is coming for him. "Look—I've just got some stuff to take care of, okay? It's not a date."

"But—" Cessily said.

"Goodbye, Cessily," Laura says firmly, grasping Julian's t-shirt sleeve and pulling him after her as she resumes the walk towards the motorboats (Cyclops having forbidden the usage of powers off Utopia)

**…**

_June 22 17:20 Sunset Boulevard, San Fransisco_

"So…where are we going _now_?" Julian asks after a while. They are walking down a busy street in San Francisco, lost amongst a sea of shoppers and tourists. He's hot; it must be more than  
a hundred degrees out. His feet ache from walking in his flip-flops, and his eyes hurt from the glare of the scorching sun (because Laura is wearing his sunglasses). At first he'd resisted the  
urge to be a gentleman, heeding Cessily's accusations of earlier; but he'd had a hard time ignoring the distressed expression of his silently suffering companion.

"You alright there?" he'd asked.

Laura had paused. "I am fine. My eyes are sensitive to bright light."

When tears had begun to roll down her cheeks from the glare, he'd finally pulled his own shades off and wordlessly passed them to her.

"We are travelling towards the bus depot," Laura says.

Julian stops. "What—why? Why do we need a bus?"

"We need to get away from here. As far as is possible in the time remaining. I would prefer Europe—"

"Laura…earlier you said Utopia was going to be _attacked,_" Julian says, remembering. "This attack didn't involve only me…did it?"

Silence. Laura's face is unreadable behind the glasses, so he reaches out and lowers them to see her eyes. They are full of guilt, just like he thought they would be.

"We have to go back," Julian says firmly. "I can't let my friends fight that alone. I—"

"You will die!" Laura snaps. "And your death will accomplish nothing, except to—"

"To what?" Julian asks. "Make _you _sad?"

Laura pauses, trying to formulate an answer.

"You're being selfish. Who's going to die in my place? Think of that, Laura…instead of trying to prevent yourself grieving over something you never had."

Silence. Laura doesn't know what to say. She feels shame—and anger—and insult. She watches him back away, becoming lost in the sea of people.

"Have a nice trip," he calls, waving at her as he backs towards the crosswalk.

He doesn't see the bus.

**…**

_June 23 12:05 Providence Hospital, San Francisco_

Laura sits in the waiting room, her face worn. She knows what the nurse will say. There is no possible chance that Julian could have survived having a bus strike him at full  
speed (of course, the light had been green).

She tried to save him but was too late; there were too many people between them, and the bus had been going too fast. She's already figured out the math in a physics equation, and proved  
to herself that the only failure was allowing him to slip away.

Laura finds herself pulling her hair. Three times, now, she has failed to preserve Hellion's life. It is as if he is destined to die, and nothing she does can prevent it.

_I will not surrender, _she promises herself. The same promise she thought while kneeling beside his prone form on the crosswalk, stroking a part of his hair that was not matted with  
blood. He'd already been unconscious, his heart slowing, when the paramedics arrived on the scene.

She'd thought of Elixir immediately, and had tried to contact the Cuckoos for assistance; no one had answered. Her communicator would not work with the Utopia communicators of this timeline;  
and if she had tried to find him herself, it would have been too late as the attack would already have begun.

So she sat in the waiting room, waiting for the inevitable moment when she'd reach up to the device on her arm and press the buttons to return herself to her timeline.

And try again.

"Excuse me, miss?" A nurse is shuffling towards her, and she looks up.

"Yes?" she mouths.

"He's awake and in stable condition," the nurse says, her face dimpling with a smile. "He's asked to see you. In room 190."

"But…" Laura is confused. "He was struck by a large vehicle."

"His leg is broken, and a few ribs were cracked, but he was lucky. It's almost like something absorbed the brunt of the impact."

Laura knows instantly that he must have shielded himself. She gets to her feet and follows the nurse to the visiting room; she has been allowed in because of her lie on the  
admission forms, listing herself as his sister. When they enter the room, Laura sees several curtained partitions. The nurse heads towards one and pulls the curtains open.

"I'll leave you two alone for a bit…I'm sure you have a lot to discuss," the nurse says. She exits the room, pulling a cart behind her.

Julian is obviously bedridden, his leg in a cast and suspended from a rack by a metal wire; there are bandages around his torso, and a few applied to his face. One encircles the  
circumference of his head entirely. He is bruising heavily, dark plum blotches over his cheeks and nose, and his eyes.

"This is your fault," he says thickly, through the gallons of morphine they have pumped into him and his swollen lips; his expression is that of annoyance.

Laura smiles with relief, her eyes twinkling suspiciously, and she approaches his bedside. "Yes," she says, although she doesn't seem to be too concerned about the  
failure. She reaches him and hesitantly her fingertips brush his, on the hand laying by his side on the bed.

He looks up and doesn't know what to say. He was prepared to yell at her—for hours—for what has happened, but it now seems petty. Stupid. He walked in front of the bus, didn't  
he? Wasn't that the first lesson his mother had taught him…look both ways?

"Okay," he says. He's smiling in a drugged, compliant way.

Also, he hasn't seen Laura smile much, before. Once, when he'd saved her ass after Nimrod deep-fried her like a KFC chicken wing; and another time, when he and Santo got into a  
ridiculous fight over a video game and he'd turned around to see her lurking in the dark part of the room, her eyes on him, with a slight smile of…derision? Amusement?

He wonders if it was affection. He's always found it strange, how he can treat her worse and worse, and she just eats it up, silently worships him or something. He can tell—Laura has  
never, ever breathed a word to him about her feelings—but there is an almost tangible tension whenever she directs her eyes towards his location.

Like she's doing now. And it totally worked, didn't it? He'd forgotten how angry he was with her.

"I really, really like you," he says dreamily, allowing her fingers to remain. "Like really…really…like…what was I saying again?"

Laura pulls her hand back. "We need to extract you from this hospital," she says, sensibly.

"Oh," he says. He is glad she's pulled away; a little part of him feels a sense of dismay at what he'd just said, but he can't remember what he was talking about. "Wait…what?"

"You cannot stay here," Laura says. She has turned around and reached for a clipboard at the end of his bed; he watches as she studies it, her eyes skimming down the page.

"They have set the bone, and pinned it in place. If you use your telekinesis to lower yourself into a wheelchair, we could—"

"I'm not going anywhere," he says sleepily. "I've had a seery…seri…serious injury. I got to sleep this off a bit. Also...don't know if you noticed, but I'm a little slow right now."

"Perhaps," Laura says. She checks her watch anxiously and moves away from him—towards the door.

"Where are you—LAURA!" he calls, sitting up slightly and wincing as a pain shoots up from his leg. It helps him focus; he can see that she's just closing the door.

_**POP!**_

Laura stares in disbelief at the sleek, human-sized robotic Sentinel that has appeared at the foot of Julian's bed, aiming an arm at him; and before either of them can even  
process a single thought, it has fired its artillery.

_**PAFFT!**_

_**POP!**_

It is gone, and Laura is left behind, her hand frozen on the doorknob, her eyes glued to the bed where Julian is still laying—with a neat, round hole in his forehead.

His eyes are still open.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Sorry for lack of updates, been busy with finals, moving, flying to Iowa (to be with fiance), and holidays! I am still out in Iowa so updates may not be frequent, but I have not forgotten! :-)

* * *

**4. Chapter 4—**

**

* * *

**

_July 6, 22:05 Starbucks, Sunset Boulevard (near bus accident)_

A few hours later (spent sitting slumped in an alleyway near the hospital), Laura had recovered from the strain of the extended temporal displacement enough to walk without her knees buckling, her  
healing factor speeding up the process. She wandered over to a coffee place where she purchased a sandwich; her stomach cramped from hunger after using so many calories to heal herself.

**…**

_July 6, 22:25 Starbucks Bathroom, Sunset Boulevard (near bus accident)_

Laura gazed into the bathroom mirror, leaning against the counter with her shoulders hunched, hands on the rim of the sink, arms shaking as she pondered recent events. There was a pattern now—Sentinels _  
twice. _Someone in charge of Sentinels had chosen to make sure that Julian was dead—and was in possession of a temporal device, like hers. Someone knew what the future would be like with him in it.

She longed to know this information. The hospital…before Julian had died for the third time…before her third failure…she'd seen that look in his eyes that she'd seen before. Uncertainty and…what? Lust? Desire?  
Affection? There was a change in his scent that always correlated with this indecipherable expression that supported these theories.

Laura didn't know what his opinion was of her. Well, she did know—she knew what he propagated to the other children, at least. _X is creepy, she scares me, she should be voted off the island! _But she suspected him  
of lying, in some way. It was hard to pinpoint because he was not lying about her scaring him; he _was_ frightened of her. Very. Perhaps the better way to describe it was he was not telling the whole truth—and she  
suspected it was related to the looks he cast her way when he thought no one (including herself) was aware, and the change in his scent.

And Laura would never find out what his behavior meant if she did not rescue him. She gazed at her reflection sternly. _The target must survive. You have twenty-two minutes. _

With that thought in mind, she set her temporal device back two weeks, seventeen hours and two minutes—the minute before he had been hit by the bus.

**…**

_June 22 17:23 Sunset Boulevard, San Francisco_

Laura can hear them arguing, in the distance.

Julian: _"What—why? Why do we need a bus?"_

Herself: _"We need to get away from here. As far as is possible in the time remaining. I would prefer Europe—" _

A child behind her screams, and the mother comforts it by laying her hand on its forehead. Laura remembers hearing this, but paying it no heed, as she had been standing much farther away than she is now, running  
towards the crosswalk where Julian will still be, about to cross and be hit by the bus which is even now speeding towards him.

Although he is completely unaware.

Julian: _"Laura…earlier you said Utopia was going to be attacked...this attack didn't involve only me…did it?"_

Silence. Laura remembers the feeling of guilt, wishes she had spoken up: she was a temporal duplicate, she would still be in the fight, or a version of her would. It was confusing.

Julian: _"We have to go back. I can't let my friends fight that alone. I—"_

Laura (sounding exasperated): _"You will die! And your death will accomplish nothing, except to—" _

She pauses, now, as it is his turn to speak.

Julian: _"To what? Make _you_ sad?" _

Silence on her counterpart's part. She realizes, now, that he has just—for the first time—suggested out loud that she covets him. This was what had rendered her speechless, unsure.

Julian: _"You're being selfish. Who's going to die in my place? Think of that, Laura…instead of trying to prevent yourself grieving over something you never had." _

Laura blinks, free of the pressure of the situation—free to analyze. Is he telling her she will never have it? But now is not the time; he is beginning to move towards her present self, away from her past self.

Julian (waving at her duplicate): _"Have a nice trip!"_

She can see him now, backing up as he waves, and she can see the bus speeding towards him.

This time she is faster; Julian bellows an expletive as she tackles him like an opponent in a football match, taking him out of harm's way. They tumble to the pavement, a tackle of arms and legs that results in  
herself straddling his torso.

Julian is too stunned to comment as the bus hurtles by, blaring its horn. He watches it go, then looks back at her, his eyes wide. Laura hears herself approaching, and so scrambles to her feet, pulling him by a  
firm grip around his wrist.

The crowd provides ample coverage.

**…**

"There's no way you could have reached me in time," Julian breathes, in an alleyway twelve blocks up where she has deemed it safe to pause. Laura knows she will not give up the chase—they are now running  
from herself, her duplicate, in addition to whoever is sending the Sentinel assassins after him.

Or will she smell her own scent and know?

Did she cease to exist the moment she saved him from the bus?

"I didn't," Laura says, watching his ribcage heave. They should keep running but he won't make it.

Julian stops. "What?"

"I came back. To prevent your impact with the passenger vehicle." Laura says this calmly, even though she doesn't feel calm. She's nervous. Her opponent is unknown and will remain so until he or she exposes themselves.

"So you're…oh god," Julian groans, and rubs his head as if it hurts. "Look…this is getting _way_ too confusing. Why are you coming back again?"

"Because I failed to protect you," Laura says. "Someone wants you dead. A Sentinel was sent after you, temporally, in the hospital. After you were struck."

Julian gasps a few more breaths, then replies: "Holy…fuck!"

She smiles, slightly, and studies him, his skin shining with perspiration, and notes that he smells delicious right now. Then she notes that she can hear footsteps, running in their direction.

Her footsteps.

"Lift us," she hisses. Julian snaps his head up, alarmed. And watches in astonishment as another Laura skids to a halt at the entrance to the alleyway…fixes her eyes on him standing with herself…her mouth opens…and  
just like that she disappears, like a hologram that has been switched off.

"Oh," Laura says beside him.

He whirls around to face her. "The fuck was that?"

"My temporal duplicate," Laura says calmly. "A paradox was created by me seeing myself. Apparently, whomever is my current self remains, and the other is cancelled."

"…" Julian makes a frustrated noise. "Today was gonna be so great. I was going to see a concert—there was this girl named Anne—she was going to get us beer, and I was so going to get _laid. _And then _you_ popped  
into my room and that all went to hell!"

"Laid?" Laura asks, after a few moments of silence have passed.

"Forget it." Julian rubs his face. "Forget it all, because I have to die today."

"You will not die. What does laid mean?"

"If you don't know, I'm not going to be the one to tell you," Julian says with a slight sneer. He unwillingly catches her questioning gaze, and color rises to his face slowly.

He is giving her that look. "Erm…you know…do it."

By his apparent discomfort, Laura deciphers what he is talking about; there is a silence, in which he is obviously thinking about something. Perhaps he is mentally applying that term to her—and by his wincing expression,  
trying very hard not to; she folds her arms as his pupils lower by a few degrees.

"I do not believe we should run any longer," Laura says.

"You don't?" he asks vaguely.

"No. I believe we should bait our adversary into exposing himself. Once defeated, there is no reason you cannot survive. Excepting your own carelessness, of course." This comment is in reference to the bus.

"I was distracted," Julian says angrily. "You wanted me to _abandon _my friends! Hey, I'm still mad at you for that. Stop sidetracking me."

"Julian…evidence now suggests that you are an integral target of the adversary Cyclops and the X-men have been fighting since the child was born. For some reason—perhaps something you are going to do in the  
future—you have been marked as a threat, and have been methodically eliminated in every timeline I have created through alteration. I did not see this before; I was too…" Laura pauses, not wanting to describe her  
emotions to him. "Too focused on preventing your death. I did not see that your termination is _not_ a random event, is _not_ a natural result of what is called 'fate'."

Julian sees where she's going. "So if we find out whoever's gunning for me…"

"I will stop them," Laura says, her hands tightening on her elbows. "And you will not have to die."

"No killing," he says sharply.

Laura looks…amused? The corners of her mouth turn up. She is amused at how he sticks to his ideals—innocent—not realizing this is a war, and in war, all is fair. They all fight with target signs on their backs for a chance at life.

"Laura, no. Enough death. I'm _sick _of it, I can't have it on my conscience."

"It will not be on your conscience, it will be on mine," Laura points out.

"You don't have one," Julian blurts, and there is a silence, as he has spoken very bluntly and hurtfully the thought harbored by himself and the other teens of Utopia. What hurts more is he's not even trying to be  
mean to her—he's being truthful.

He thinks her to be the weapon Rice prided himself on creating; conscienceless, soulless.

Laura turns away, her eyes suddenly stinging. She wonders vaguely why she—who has heard much, much worse derogatory comments in her existence—is so bothered by what he thinks of her. It's just his  
opinion, it doesn't mean it's true.

_Logan had said much the same. _

She tenses as his hand touches her shoulder. "I didn't mean that," he says, a little more softly because he saw her reaction. A reminder that perhaps she isn't a void, devoid, a blank slate with blank eyes and  
a robot's unquestioning obedience. A machine.

She is in the past, after all, trying to save his ass from whatever's picked him as its new target dummy.

"You did," Laura says. "I do not wish to discuss this any further."

"I do," he says. "We have time, right?"

Laura turns her head, looks at him questioningly.

"Till I, uh, kick the bucket," Julian adds, with an expression of mild amusement and nervousness.

Laura looks at her temporal device. "Thirty hours, twenty eight minutes and fifteen seconds…fourteen, thirteen, twelve…"

"Let's get something to eat then," he suggests. "And talk more, about this. All of this."

Laura looks at him again, her expression saying it all: he has gone insane.

"Hey, seeing as I'm the one with the most to lose here…it's my call," Julian says.

**…**

_June 22 17:20 Mary's Diner, Sunset Boulevard, San Francisco_

At a diner, in a booth with red vinyl seats, a table separating the two teenagers, a window beside them with a view to the crowded streets:

Laura studies the menu, her mind far from food at the moment, her stomach far from hungry. Actually, it is a twisted knot of anxiety; but she can hear Julian's stomach growling slightly. She briefly considers the  
idea that he might not take the situation seriously, but discards it.

Julian takes the situation seriously—but she is beginning to suspect that he doesn't _care_ ; that he might find relief in being liberated from the difficult life he'd had forced on him so suddenly. He'd been a regular  
teenaged boy before the war—well, as regular as a mutant could be at Xavier's school—and then his life had literally been torn apart. Laura recalls something about his parents disowning and later abandoning  
him, leaving Julian as a charge of the school.

He seems to lack a survival instinct.

"Want to split a basket of onion rings?" he asks her casually, as if they are not here to discuss…what are they even here to discuss? Laura hopes it is the situation at hand.

"Yes," she says. She has no preference of what the food is. She is concentrating on being battle-ready. She'd realized, in the alley, that they needed to draw their enemy out of hiding—what better way to do so than  
to make him or her think they were relaxing? She is aware that the Sentinels sent after Julian were assassins and not the opponent in charge of the operation—but perhaps she can extract information on the origins.

Even if he perishes in combat, she can use the information for another attempt.

A milkshake arrives, for Julian. He thanks the waitress, gives her a friendly smile; Laura notes, despite her concentration, that the waitress has a symmetrical face, glossy hair, all of her teeth, and a well-proportioned  
body—and more importantly, the boy seated across from herself is aware of these features too. And responding to them, chemically.

"Are you ready to order?" the waitress asks.

"Sure am," he responds.

Laura lowers her eyes to the menu again, and her claws slide out as she hears Julian make his order, throwing in a comment for the waitress that is crude innuendo. _Preparation, constant vigilance, _she tells herself, even  
though this is not going to make Julian ever consider her that way—in the end, she will be of more value because she will keep him alive.

It's her way of reassuring herself that she is what he needs, right now.

"Laura?" Julian is addressing her again, and she looks up, simultaneously drawing a claw up the smooth flesh of her inner wrist. She can hear her skin cells parting, the blood easing out of the veins it is pent up in,  
and meeting the air.

"What he is having," Laura says, for simplicity. The waitress nods, writes this down, leaves.

Julian's eyes follow the other girl as she walks away, flipping closed her order pad with a flick of her wrist.

Laura closes her eyes for a moment, wishing they would attack _now, _then she can be of use. She will know what to do—she will not feel awkward and unnecessary.

"I shouldn't have said what I did," Julian interrupts her thoughts. He means his earlier comment, in the alleyway—not the transgression he has just unwittingly committed.

"I do not wish to discuss this," Laura says, her voice flat. She doesn't need to dwell on his perception of her at the moment; if they must talk, it should be about how they will find their opponent and  
defeat him. The mission is all that matters.

"I do," he says, and pauses to inhale. "I've thought a lot about you, Laura…more than you've guessed."

Laura's eyes zip to his, uncertain. Her claw pauses in her skin, hesitating.

"You scare me," he says honestly. "I think you're pretty cold. I've never seen anyone do what you have, and not even bat an eyelid. You're also brilliant, and, well…" he trails off.

"You think I am brilliant?" Laura asks, surprised. She's never heard anyone say this of her before.

Julian raises his eyebrow. "Sure. Bet all the guys tell you that."

"No one has ever suggested I am intelligent," Laura says.

"Really?" he asks, looking surprised.

Laura hesitates. "I do not wish to discuss this," she repeats. _This_ delves too deep, disturbs territories she would rather not explain to Julian—memories of Rice kicking her in her transport cage, calling her  
'animal'…hosing her off with cold water, like one would wash a dog that has been in the mud…Kimura tossing her around and telling her she was being punished for stupidity.

No, Laura does not consider herself smart; she's been trained to compute, to assess. To avoid being broken into little pieces.

"I wish you'd open up," Julian says. "That's part of the problem. No one knows you because you won't _talk_ to them. Even if you don't want to share your past…you could at least share your opinions."

"Opinions?" Laura asks.

"Yeah. On stuff that's going on with the team…your favorite things…you know, hang out in the rec room sometimes. You always shut yourself up in your room and avoid socializing like the plague."

"The plague socializes?" Laura asked.

"It's a figure of speech," Julian says, patiently. He's usually quite annoyed when Laura questions him about stuff like this; he always wonders where she'd _been _the past ten years. He knew very little about her  
origins, except that she had been grown in a lab—and Kimura, whom he'd had the displeasure of meeting. But those were very vague perimeters, and surely her creators had wanted the girl to be able to  
integrate with society, for camouflage.

Just now, however, he feels he needs to be patient, or Laura will refuse to open up.

He feels like a seagull trying to pry open a particularly muscular clam. Maybe if he talks about the others for a bit?

"What do you think of Frost and Cyclops, for instance?"

Laura's eyebrows draw together. "Cyclops is in command and I will do whatever he asks of me. Frost is second-in-command and provides telepathic rapport amongst the team."

"That's not an opinion," Julian points out. "That's an observation."

"That is what I think of them," Laura says, frustrated. What does he want from her?

"Okay," Julian takes a sip of his milkshake. "What do you think about Cessily?"

"Her codename is Mercury and she is very loud," Laura observes.

"The other kids? Nori, Santo…Josh?"

"Nori is protective of her teammates. Santo is not serious enough, and Josh refuses to develop his abilities which could be beneficial to the team."

"I see," Julian says. Laura's comments, while still mechanical, seem a little more personal than the first; she has inserted a few opinions into her descriptions. "And me?"

This time, there is an immediate change in her demeanor. "I do not wish to discuss this," Laura says, flushing slightly, color appearing on the pale skin of her cheeks.

"Come on, what do you think of me?" he asks, wondering if he's ready to hear this.

Laura pauses, thinking. She is not willing or ready to discuss her attraction; but at the same time he should not be left believing she thinks ill of him. "You are a good friend," she says simply.

This seems to please and surprise him. "I try," he says with a small smile. She smiles back at him, slightly; the food arrives now, on platters held in the waitresses hands, but Laura notes that this time when he  
thanks her, he addresses the other girl very absent-mindedly, as if she's not really there.

"What do you think about Wolverine?" Julian asks, realizing he's interested. Maybe Laura knows something about their mysterious mentor, being his clone.

The girl looks slightly depressed, her smile fading. "I do not wish to discuss this." She pauses, hesitating, then adds: "Wolverine is disappointed with me."

"For?" Julian fishes, picking up his burger but eyeing her over the top.

"My actions," Laura says. She knows what his next question will be, and thinks of a way to answer him without divulging information on X-force, a topic on which she is sworn to secrecy.

"What actions? What did you _do_?" Julian asks.

"Killing humans," Laura answers calmly. "In the mansion…during the Purifier attack. He is angry."

Julian remembers, with a prickle on the back of his neck, how he and his fellow students had been completely overwhelmed—even the headmistress, Emma Frost—and how effortlessly Laura had switched gears. She  
had murdered each and every one of the humans attacking the mansion as if they were made of paper. And thinking back, Frost hadn't even batted an eyelash.

She'd been as relieved to see Laura as he had been.

This conflicts his attitude that no one else should have to die, for him. Hadn't he been frozen with fear when he'd realized the bullets went right through his shield? He remembers the knowledge that had presented  
itself: the certainty that he was about to die.

"He should have been there to protect us, then," Julian says.

Laura raises her eyebrows; she too can see the thought that Julian has just had regarding his attitude.

He might comply yet.


	5. Chapter 5

**5. Chapter 5—  


* * *

**

_June 22 18:45 Greenville Street, San Francisco___

__"I don't want to die," Julian blurts suddenly.

They are walking down the street, after dinner, looking at the displays in the store windows, Laura running her mind over the situation. Who will she have to kill to ensure the boy  
will survive? _Who is the enemy? _No move has been made, no attempt to strike him down.

The words register and she turns to direct her gaze at him.

"You're right," he says. "Whoever's doing this…they don't deserve to live, because they hurt my friends. I remembered…I remembered the school," he continues, his voice smaller.

"I was glad when you showed up and killed the Purifiers. I wanted them to die and couldn't manage it myself."

Laura tilts her head slightly.

"I was glad to see you," he adds, very uncertainly. "I was worried…I hadn't seen you for a while, and everything was going to hell. I thought you might've died."

Laura smiles slightly. "I was glad you survived, too," she says.

Silence, of the awkward variety. Julian uncomfortably feels that, without really meaning it, what he has just said means more to the girl than if he'd expressed a sentiment of undying love  
for her (even though any other girl would not be as impressed).

"Yeah…so what are we going to do?" he asks, meaning their current situation. To distract her. He isn't sure he's ready to go down that road with Laura—and yet—he realizes, for the first  
time, that it's a possibility. All this time he's been attracted, but scared stiff by her; and just now the thought has occurred to him that maybe it's more than physical.

He needs time to think on this, alone.

Laura seems relieved; she wants to plan, to analyze the tactical rather than the emotional.

**…**

"We interrogate," Laura says, her finger poised over the map. "They have not exposed themselves, so we will have to find them."

Julian stares; her finger is pointing at _Washington, D.C. _

"We're in California," he says stupidly.

"Yes," Laura says.

"How do you guess they're in Washington, specifically? From all the way over here?"

Laura thinks; another thing to explain without breaking her oath of secrecy to X-force. "When you were...eviscerated…by Lady Deathstrike…when we went after the baby…Stryker was there."

Julian's eyes widen. Stryker?

"But he's dead," he says. "Josh killed him."

"Yes," Laura says, pursing her lips.

"There's something you're not telling me," Julian observes, startling her. How can he read her body language so well? She'd been careful to conceal all signs of lying; she has been trained to. She  
can lie with a detecting machine attached and still be believed (this has been proven).

"I have told you what I know," Laura says.

"No you haven't. You know way more than you're letting on. You're here because you didn't agree with something that happened, a something that gets me killed," Julian says confidently. "Would this  
something involve the way you, Josh and Wolverine keep having to go see Cyclops for?"

Laura's eyes widen, against her will. "No—" she begins, but it's too late; he's seen that he has touched on the truth.

"What does Cyclops have you do?" Julian asks.

"No. There is nothing. Julian, stop talking," Laura orders.

He puts two and two together. "You guys are a wet works team, aren't you?"

"…" Laura pales, having heard her mentor Logan describe X-force as such before. She hangs her head slightly. There's no use; he knows. "Yes," she says, then looks at him again. "You cannot tell  
anyone. _Ever. _You are now bound to keep this information—"

"Secret," Julian finishes for her (albeit not with her choice of wording). "I'm not going to tell anyone."

Laura sniffs, almost imperceptibly, and relaxes. He is not lying.

"So…I take it you guys know about something out in D.C., then?" Julian asks, looking at her finger, still pressed to a spot on the map.

"Yes." Laura pauses. "Stryker is alive, as is Bolivar Trask, and several other foes the X-men have defeated before. Their life…is not normal. Their words are not their own."

"Something else is controlling them? Like zombies?" Julian asks.

"Yes," Laura says, knowing what zombies are thanks to theatre nights with Megan (mostly horror flicks).

It is an apt description. Laura knows this because she's been in the same room with a few of the suspected 'zombies' since their resurrections…and they smelled of death.

"You're thinking we find out who controls them…and we find the guy who's sending the Sentinels," Julian perceives.

"Yes," Laura says.

"We should ask Alleyne," Julian says thoughtfully. "Remember how he just _knew_ it was Nimrod, right away? Too bad he doesn't have powers anymore, he could just stand beside one of the  
zombies and know what's going on."

"Nimrod," Laura murmurs, suddenly acutely aware of a fact she has overlooked before.

"What about Nimrod?" the boy asks, oblivious.

"When Stryker attacked the mansion, he wielded a weapon," Laura says.

"A pink hand," Julian supplies. His eyes widen. "Nimrod was pink. And—oh god—he was half-deconstructed when we found him. You mean—Stryker—and Nimrod—"

"Nimrod possesses temporal travelling capabilities," Laura says.

"But we destroyed Nimrod."

"No, we did not. We sent it back to its own timeline, which is what happens when a temporal device is removed from a temporal traveller." Laura pauses. "I know this for certain, as it  
has happened to me."

"…" Julian runs a hand through his hair. "Jesus, okay…so Stryker's alive…so…so you think _Nimrod _is behind all of this?"

"No," Laura says. She is thinking back. "My first mission. With X-force. We were instructed to investigate the theft of Bastion's head from a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, by Purifiers."

"Oh, god." Julian seems to know who this being is. "Oh my _god_. They put the head on Nimrod, didn't they?"

They fall silent, realizing just how big this is, how much bigger than either of them.

…

_June 22 21:19 Fisherman's Wharves, San Francisco_

"I'm scared, Laura," Julian says in a small voice.

They are sitting on the end of the pier, dangling their legs over the edge, gazing out into the night and trading flimsy ideas for how they will deal with this new information.

Both know it is no use, and now he's forcing the truth.

Tomorrow he will die.

Laura looks into the depths of the water. "I will stay with you," she says, her voice sad.

He draws up a leg, hugs it to his chest. "I have so much left that I want to do. Places I haven't been to…people I want to meet…I want to finish school, and have a steady girlfriend, and learn  
everything I can about my powers."

Laura says nothing. He needs to speak, right now, she senses.

"I want to get a career," he says. "Dad wanted me to be a lawyer…but to be honest, I always wanted to be a space man. You know…an astronaut." He grins slightly. "Now I want to be an X-man…  
but something else too. You know, how Iceman is an accountant too?"

"Yes," Laura says.

"I haven't even…" he begins, but thinks better of it. Laura guesses at what he'd been about to say, and tentatively reaches out, puts her hand on his. Very lightly. "You will."

Julian looks at his hand, then at her uncertainly.

"I promise that you will. I will not forget you. I promise I will prevent your death." She pauses. She has a plan. "You might have to die one more time."

"I really am Jean Grey, aren't I?" Julian says with a nervous chuckle. He doesn't feel amused though.

Laura says nothing.

**…**

_June 23 11:45 Fisherman's Wharves, San Francisco_

After a night of talking—and some fitful sleeping, on Julian's part—the pair head back up the now-busy wharf towards the streets of the city, Laura having theorized that perhaps if they are  
moving, the Sentinel will have a harder time targeting them.

She doubts it.

By 12:00 they have reached a winding hill near the city center. They have bought ice cream, Julian mumbling something about how criminals on death row get to request special food before  
executions; why not he? He'd chosen Green Tea gelato, Laura plain vanilla.

They stand at the top of the hill, with their ice-cream cones, and then Julian reaches out and takes Laura's hand. They both know what is coming, in five minutes time.

"I wish I had gotten to know you better," Julian says, and she can tell he's fighting to keep his composure. "I should have asked you questions, made you feel welcome when you joined us at  
the school. God, I wish I hadn't been so mean to everyone. I've been such a jerk."

Laura remains silent, hearing his watch ticking on his wrist. _Four minutes, three minutes fifty-two seconds, three minutes thirty-three seconds…_

"You like me, don't you?" he asks. He is rambling. She notes an increase in his heart rate, more perspiration released.

"Yes." Laura says simply.

"I like you too. God, I think I'm obsessed with you, sometimes. I never said anything because I was scared…you're really intimidating, but—oh, to _hell_ with it…" he hands her his ice cream cone,  
takes her face in between his hands (his fingers touching her jaws), and moves closer, just a little, just enough to press his lips against hers very lightly, for a while. Testing if she will bite him, maybe.

Laura has stopped counting. Just for a while.

He pulls back. "Tell Cessily she's my best friend, ever…and Santo that I'll still be there to put him back together when he gets himself blown up…and…your eyes are really pretty…"

Her aforementioned eyes widen despite knowing this will happen: over Julian's shoulder is a glow, a portal forming.

"Will it hurt?" he asks her desperately. The Nimrod has materialized behind him, its face unfeeling, uncaring about his imminent death.

"No," Laura says. She bites her lip, her fingers reaching for the button on her temporal device.

She presses it just as Julian turns around to face the light, unable to watch him disintegrate again.


	6. Chapter 6

**6.** **Chapter 6—  
**

* * *

_July__ 6, 22:25 __Lombard __Street__, __San __Francisco_

Laura opened her eyes again, and realized she was still holding Julian's ice cream cone, her own having been dropped in the past when she reached to press the button on her temporal device.

She considered it for a moment, then sat down on the sidewalk—noting she could smell old blood in the vicinity—Julian's—and proceeded to finish the cone, in his honor. While promising herself: she would get back up, walk to Utopia if she had to, and find Cyclops.

She now knew that she could not fight her opponent alone. To save Julian, she needed help.

Laura got to her feet, then unfurled a claw on one hand. _**SNKKT**__**! **_She kneeled, and on the spot where Julian had been disintegrated, she scraped a deep gouge.

X marked the spot.

**…**

_July__ 7, 02:15 __Utopia_

"I have a plan," Laura said, her eyes livid, daring the more senior X-men to quiet her. She'd just chronicled every relevant point of her day without exposing the purpose; fleshed out every temporal jump she'd made. Risked chastise from Cyclops for her actions.

Presented information that, until now, probably had not occurred to him.

Cyclops folded his arms. "I don't think so. Laura, you made a _big_ mistake. You can't mess with the past like that. You don't know what you might have messed up because of this."

"I was extremely cautious," Laura protested.

Cyclops was unmoved, but Wolverine, standing behind him, cleared his throat.

"I know Laura," Logan said, his eyebrow raised. "Better than you. She's not selfish. She's the most self-less person we have." He paused. "She wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the sake of the mission."

"I would not," Laura agreed.

"You've given her a mission, Slim," Logan said, looking at Cyclops. "Therefore, she wouldn't mess around with it. Whatever she's going to tell you…it doesn't only work in her interest. Or the kid's. She's thinking about all of us…about the mission."

Cyclops turned to the older man. "I didn't ask you."

"Yeah, you don't ask me about a lot of things, bub," Logan said, meaning Laura's recruitment to X-force.

Scott knew this, knew the older man had never forgiven him for his transgression.

"Trust me…all she thinks about these days is the mission," Logan added, his lip curled in a snarl. "She's got to, or the hell you've made her go through for things she has no stake in would crush her. The least you can do is hear her through."

_Or__ I__'__ll__ punch __you__ in__ the__ face__, __again__, _Logan's body language added loudly.

"Fine," Cyclops said, backing down. The cost of hearing Laura's idea was less than the cost of getting Wolverine angry and non-compliant. Logan tended to make his grudges known by ignoring his pager.

Laura began. When she was finished, Cyclops was rubbing his chin, an action he often did while contemplating strategic decisions.

It was a good plan. It was, actually, very well thought out, with at least an eighty percent chance of being effective (as Laura had mentioned, having calculated the odds beforehand). If it failed, the team sent to enact the ploy would certainly be killed; if it succeeded, however…Bastion would no longer be a threat.

"I'll have to sleep on it," Cyclops said.

"You mean sleep _with_ it," Logan, sarcastically. Meaning Emma Frost. "Oh—wait—yer keepin' all this a secret from yer woman, aren't ya?" A subtle threat.

"Shut up," the leader said absentmindedly as he headed towards the door of the ready room. "I'll talk to you in the morning, X-23."

Laura stood, trembling slightly with exhaustion. She hadn't slept, herself, in about three days, when the temporal jumps were accounted for; plus, there was the strain on her system from being temporally displaced for so long. Her healing factor could handle a lot, and she had never stayed for more than the allotted thirty-two hours per temporal jump, but it was still taxed.

She noticed Logan still in the room.

"T-thank you," she said, her voice shaking.

"You didn't tell him the whole story," Logan observed.

Laura looked down. "No."

Silence.

"It was the kid, wasn't it?" Logan fished. "You can't accept the fact that he's gone."

Laura let silence answer her, her head bowed, her eyes lowered in submission. _I__'__ve __disobeyed__, __betrayed__ the__ mission__. __Where__ is__ Kimura__? __I__ will__ submit__ for __punishment__._

"First human emotion I've seen you show," Logan said, instead of rebuking her. "Maybe…maybe I was wrong, kid. Thought X-force was gonna snuff what you were trying to build…make you a weapon again. Did you join just because it was familiar?"

The first time he had _asked _her about her purpose, instead of jumping to assumptions.

"No," Laura says, her voice hollow.

"Why, then?" Logan pressed her for an answer.

Laura paused for a moment, searching for the words. "I did not want to see my friends die," she said, looking up again. "I do what they cannot…so they can live. You told me before…'_she__'__s __who __we__ save__, __she__'__s __why__ we __risk__ our __lives__, __and__ she__'__s __who __we__ die__ for__'__,_ meaning Rahne Sinclair." Quoting him. "You could easily have meant any of my friends. But not me."

Logan watched her for a moment, the older wolf appraising the younger one…and did he approve?

"Maybe yer more human than I made you out to be," he said. "Kid…I was harsh on you…I was upset. What I said…the sentiment stands, but I forget, sometimes, that yer not as old as I am. I worry."

"You are my mentor," Laura said. "My sensei." She paused. "The harshest are often the best." She was thinking of the old man who had instructed her as a child. The only one to ever treat her with kindness—and stern but well-meant rebukes in the facility.

Logan nodded. "That's right, kid." He turned to go, then paused. "I'll talk to Cyke. He's got more to lose if he plays it prim and proper."

He left Laura to ponder the meaning of his words.

**…**

_July 7, 06:29 Utopia  
_

"All right, Laura, I'm convinced," Cyclops said, surprising the girl. His body language spoke of rejection, closure, disapproval, and did not match his words of agreement. "I've asked the Cuckoos to gather the team in the ready room. Suit up."

"This is a bullshit plan," Vanisher whispered to Domino, on the way to the ready room. Laura was silent; her body was tense, like a rubber band pulled to breaking point. She was ready for action, prepared for the next shoe to drop. Prepared for something that would prevent Julian's rescue.

Didn't something always go wrong?

"Kid," Logan grunted, putting his hand on her shoulder. She stiffened, stopped. Logan was schooled in reading body language—he knew the meaning of a touch; he had withheld it from her for a long time, to show his disapproval of her actions. But this…had their discussion last night changed things?

Laura looked at him with questioning eyes.

"If this doesn't go as planned…don't make the mistake I did. Don't close off." Logan paused. "I've…lost people, too. An' you think you'll never come back from it. Heck, I still haven't. But that don't mean you have to be a weapon, ever again."

Laura lowered her eyes. "This is the mission. I do not fail." She paused, her eyes set on Logan's. They were cold, green ice; empty. "_You_will not fail."

Her mentor paused, then squeezed her shoulder. "I won't, kid," he promised gruffly.

For the first time in forever they shared a small smile, the small upward tilt of the corners of their mouths, the silent understanding of fighting to the death for what they believed in, and admiring each other's tenacity. Appreciating it. Something Laura does not do often.

**…**

_July__ 7, 07:21 __Fisherman__'__s__ Wharves__, __San __Francisco_

"Here," Laura said, stopping at the X scraped in the surface of the pavement at the top of the hill.

Logan's nose twitched too. _He_ could smell the blood that still lingered in the air. She was conscious of his eyes on her, his hidden concern—how did she take smelling the insides of someone she seemed to hold above her own self importance?

Laura didn't consider the scent as real; she tried to erase the scent from her memory. She shouldn't ever be able to smell it. It went against her instinct.

So she ignored it.

"Pay attention, Vanisher," Logan barked over at the tattooed man currently whispering something to Domino. "Your job's up in a few minutes, bub. And damn, you'd better be accurate. I want to do as few jumps as possible to get this right. The past isn't something you should mess with."

The man looked belligerently over at the X on the ground, his upper lip curling slightly. "Great. Remind me _why _we're putting in so much effort now to save someone we didn't give two shits about previously?"

"Because I've got a smiley face in your head," Elixir said, feeling compelled to reply because these were _his_ friends the man was talking about. "Mess this up and who knows when you lose cognitive function."

"Oh yeah. Good point," Vanisher said grudgingly.

"Okay Laura. You know what to do. You ready?"

Laura nodded. Her heart pounded in her chest as she adjusted time and date on her chronological device. It was odd, to be in the center of convergence; to be the focus of time. Even now, in the past, a Sentinel was gliding towards them on wings of death, carrying the energy it would use to extinguish Julian.

Logan nodded back to her.

"Count down from twenty, kid. At zero, everyone goes back—and be ready to _move__. _I'm lookin' at you, Vanisher. Jimmy, just be prepped for a fight."

"Yeah, yeah," Vanisher murmured, standing beside Laura and flexing his fingers.

Warpath withdrew his knives with a grim expression.

"Twenty.

Nineteen.

Eighteen.

Seventeen."

"This is bullshit," Vanisher grumbled. "Should just—"

"Sixteen.

Fifteen."

"This will be a tight squeeze. Be on your toes," Logan warned.

"Fourteen.

Thirteen.

Twelve.

Eleven.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero."

Laura's fingers depressed the button, in the same instant as the other members of her team disappeared.


	7. Chapter 7

**7. Chapter 7—  
**

* * *

_June 23 12:08 Fisherman's Wharves, San Francisco_

"…to _hell_ with it…_**AAAHHG!" **_Julian yells as he stumbles forward in surprise, the girl he had just been leaning on suddenly evaporating into thin air.

He's surrounded by people in uniforms. Scary uniforms.

"I—" Laura says. Now behind him. She'd forgotten what had happened at this moment.

"Are we _interrupting _something?" Vanisher says.

"Go _X! _Didn't think you had it in you, kid," Domino says, with a smirk.

"Brains on the game, people!" Logan snaps.

Julian looks around. "HOLY SHIT! Stop doing that! _Please!_"

"My apologies," Laura says stiffly. "It was necessary." She shifts. "We are about to determine the source of the attacks."

"Who the hell are these people?" Julian waves his arms.

"Hey, Julian," Elixir says, raising his hand. "We'll talk later, okay?"

_**RUMMMBBLLEEEE! **_

Laura and Logan look up simultaneously, as the Sentinel charges its weapons.

"_**NOW!**_" Logan roars.

_**VVVT!**_

**…**

_June 23 12:08 Utopia, San Francisco_

_**VVVT!**_

"What the _**F—**_" Julian exclaims.

"Kid's got a potty mouth," Vanisher comments.

"Where the hell—" Julian ignores him, looking around in confusion. "Are we—we're on Utopia now?"

"This is Vanisher. A teleporter." Laura looks at the man, and pops her claws. _**SNKKT!**_

__"Vanisher, go back."

The man gives Laura a terrified look, and obeys.

_**VTT! **_

"What—" Julian pauses. "Hey, I'm not dead?"

"No." Laura folds her arms. "We will wait here until the others return. They are extracting the Sentinel's programming core."

"Programming..." Julian suddenly clues in. "I get it. You're going to figure out who sent it."

"Yes."

They stand for a moment in silence.

"Well, how long is this going to take?" Julian asks impatiently.

"They must first defeat the robot." Laura arches her eyebrow.

"Wait a minute—_they?_" Julian asks. "And you! What's up with your outfit? You look—" he eyes her, uncertain. She's definitely not dressed as an X-man, in her black and grey leather. And the strange mask, with red, glowing eyes.

"Wolverine, Vanisher, Elixir, Domino, Warpath and myself." Laura pauses. "I should not have told you that. Please do not repeat the roster to anyone."

"I won't." Julian leans in; for a moment she thinks he's going to repeat his earlier move—her lips burn and her heart beats faster at the thought—but then she realizes he's studying her mask.

"Huh. Those are lenses. I thought they were your eyes."

"No," Laura says, feeling foolish. "They are night vision goggles."

"Oh, cool. So you can see in the dark with them?"

"I do not need a device for that, but yes," Laura says. She is tempted to lean in a little closer; but her chest feels constricted, and she's frozen, rooted to the ground. She _can't. _

"So, am I still going to die?" Julian asks, pulling back slightly.

"I do not know." Laura sounds distant. She's focusing her gaze on his eyes, but he can't see her pupils through the mask.

"I hate time travel," Julian says flatly. "How could this even _work?_ Wouldn't they _know _that you were trying this and just not send that Sentinel? Send it here instead?"

"I suspect that Bastion cannot receive data from either the future or present immediately. There is a delay, caused by the information having to chronologically travel. Bastion believes I am working alone. Therefore he will not know his error in time to recall the robot before X-force can extract the processing core." She pauses. "As soon as that core is separated from the machine, the chronological device inside it will cease to affect it. He cannot recall the core, nor can he make the robot disappear by never sending it." Laura pauses. "Bastion does _not_ have a chronological device for himself, because Nimrod does not. We destroyed it."

"I'll be honest, I didn't understand a word you just said." Julian rubs his neck, and grins slightly.

Laura looks frustrated. "I _said—_"

"It's okay. You don't need to go over it again."

"But-" Laura says.

"No, really, it's okay. I'm usually good with getting what's going on…but this is a different matter completely. I'll just trust that you're right."

_Trust. _Laura thinks of what is being expected of her. Cyclops has assigned her to guard Julian at this step—despite her protests that she would be useful in helping to defeat the source of the data—as he wants as little time-altering as possible.

She is now glad this is her job.

Julian pauses, eying her uniform again. "That actually looks pretty cool," he says. "Makes you look, well, so _dangerous._" His eyes linger on her midsection; she shifts.

He reddens slightly, remembering what he had been about to do a few moments before the whole team had appeared. With Laura.

And what he had _said._

"Uh," he blurts. "You know I was just babbling…right? Uh, what I said earlier. About…you know…me being…well, _obsessed _with you."

She says nothing.

"I was about to die. You'd say anything in my place. I'd probably have said that about _anyone._"

Silence.

"Obsessed was a _really _bad word for it."

More silence.

"Shut up, clone!" Julian snaps.

"I was not speaking."

"You are now," he points out lamely. "Look…it could get really awkward between us. If we get into crap like that. It would mess up the team dynamic."

"I am not on your team," Laura says logically.

"Well…we live together. It would just be weird, really weird, ok? I don't know you enough." Julian looks away. "Let's not talk about this. I don't know why you even brought it up."

"I didn't." Laura says patiently.

"Shut up," Julian mumbles, with less force this time. "Why won't you just agree with me?"

"What am I supposed to agree to?"

"That _we're_ a bad idea," Julian says hesitantly. He doesn't like admitting he's thinking about it, questioning it—especially in front of _her,_maybe showing her there is a sliver of doubt. It means weakness in her eyes—something to exploit.

"In a relationship sense?" Laura says loudly. "That is a terrible stratagem. You are inexperienced, overconfident, impatient, too weak to defend yourself, and far too foolish in battle. Meanwhile I have many dangerous adversaries and am still learning to integrate myself into society."

Julian blinks. "Huh—but— _huh?_" He takes a moment to realize what she has just said. "I am _NOT _weak! And I'm not foolish! Jeez, how do you think I stayed alive this long? I'm one of the most powerful mutants _on the planet!_"

"You would be dead if Vanisher had not saved you," Laura reminds him.

"Shut up. All the other shit you said—that's just bullshit. I _am_ experienced. And I _am_patient. I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

Laura smiles slightly. "You are often selfish."

"Why are we even having this argument?" Julian asks angrily.

"You asked me to support your conclusion that affiliating with each other is not a well-thought-out plan. I merely agreed with you, as you requested earlier."

"…" Julian rolls his eyes. "_Women!_" he says, exasperated. "I'm so _fucking _sick and tired of having everything I say twisted around and thrown at my face! You know what, screw _you, _I'd rather be on my own." As he speaks, his eyes glow green; he takes to the air.

"Julian, I would not recommend leaving at this moment."

He pauses, then drops back to the ground, his expression twisted in annoyance. "Mother _**FUCKING **_killer robots from the future!" he says, his voice full of barely-restrained frustration.

Laura says nothing; he folds his arms and faces the other way.

_**VTT!**_

Suddenly they are surrounded, by Laura's teammates. Warpath appears directly in front of Julian, his knives held in a defensive gesture.

"_**AHHG! GRRRRRRR!" **_Julian roars. "My fucking _**GOD! **_I am _**SO**_ sick of you guys just _popping _into existence in my face! As if _she_ wasn't enough!" he points venomously at Laura.

"As I recall, you seemed to _like _having her in your face," Domino says.

Warpath re-sheathes his knives, watching the interaction.

Julian flushes. "Nobody asked you, you pasty cunt."

"You know, I can sympathize with whoever's ordering these hits. Maybe I should declare my loyalty to him _right now._" Domino reaches into her holster and pulls out her firearm and points it at the boy's head.

_**SNKKT! **_Laura's claws come out without her even consciously flexing the muscles.

Logan's hand claps down on her shoulder. "Easy, X. Easy, Dom. Everyone just back off and let's keep our heads clear, okay?"

"We're just trying to help you, Julian," Elixir says. "I know it's all pretty confusing, but we can figure things out later, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever." Julian sneers at Domino. "You couldn't hit me with that anyway. I'm a _telekinetic._"

_**CRRINK, **_as she draws back the safety.

"They don't have a fancy word for what _I_do," she replies. "But odds are, this bullet could be in your skull, telekinetic or not. I'm pretty good with odds."

**"**_**DOMINO!" **_Logan barks.

"This team fights too much," Warpath says.

"Jeez, alright already," she says, re-applying the safety. "I was just going to teach him a lesson in how to talk to his superiors."

"I already _know_ how to talk to my superiors," Julian says. "You're just not one of them."

"Julian, be qui—" Laura breaks off, as she hears it.

Logan looks around too.

_**RRRRUMBBLE!**_

"_**SHIT!" **_Julian yells, grabbing Laura instinctively as he sees the sentinel lowering itself into the courtyard that they are standing in.

"_**VANISHER! GO!" **_Wolverine orders.

_**VVVT!**_

The sentinel, and X-force disappear, except for Julian and Laura, who are left standing in the center of the courtyard, the former holding the latter tightly, his eyes squeezed shut.

"It is gone," Laura says. She can feel his heart beating very rapidly, at about one-and-a-half times its normal rate. He also seems to have stopped breathing for a moment.

Then: "Oh." He opens his eyes, looks around. "Wait, I'm still alive?"

"Yes," Laura says.

He pauses, looks down and realizes she is in his arms.

_**VVVT!**_

"Oh my _god, _this is too rich!" Domino snorts, seeing them.

Warpath folds his arms, and Vanisher grins.

Wolverine looks at the pair, and smirks slightly. "Keller, can you keep it in your pants long enough for us to save your life?"

Julian glowers, pushing Laura away. "I hate _all_ of you."

Laura raises her eyebrow, and looks at her mentor. "Was the mission successful?"

He holds up a small card, like an SD card that can be found in digital cameras. "Let's go get Hank and his groupies."


	8. Chapter 8

**8. Chapter 8—  
**

* * *

_June 23 12:20 Utopia, San Francisco_

Dr. McCoy turns around and glares as X-force bursts into his laboratory.

"You are not welcome here," he says, adjusting his glasses with his paw.

"We need your help," Domino says.

"That may very well be, but unfortunately, I refuse to assist murderers."

"We don't got a lot of time for explanations, Hank," Logan says. "You _need_ to look at this, _now._"

"I said—"

Logan sweeps forward and forces Dr. McCoy against the wall with his arm across his throat, and the claws of his other hand popped. _**"YOU. WILL. DO. THIS. OR—" **_

"Do…what you…*ahhck* want…to me," Dr. McCoy wheezes. He looks over Logan's shoulder suddenly, and sees Julian, followed by Laura.

_**"LET GO OF HIM!" **_Julian shouts, pushing Domino out of his way as he charges forward. "You—"

"Kid, stay outta this," Logan says.

Laura reaches for her mask, pushes it up, and looks at Dr. McCoy. "Please. We are trying to protect Julian. He is a target…and we need your help."

There is a pause.

"Put…me down," Dr. McCoy says. Logan releases his arm, but does not take away the claws.

"You gonna help us?"

"Because this involves protecting someone, yes," Dr. McCoy says. "What do you have?"

Logan digs in his pocket and pulls out the card. "Find out who sent this Sentinel, and where it was when it got the orders."

**…**

_June 23 12:30 Utopia, San Francisco_

"Be on the alert," Logan orders his team. "Just 'coz we're idle, don't mean our opponent is. Robot could come crashin' in here any moment."

"Could you possibly wait outside then?" Dr. McCoy asked, his eyes fixed on his computer monitor. "I do not fancy rebuilding my laboratory yet _again._"

"Maybe," Logan says. He looks at his group; Vanisher and Domino are sitting on a gurney; Warpath is standing with his arms folded, and Laura, Elixir, and the boy they are protecting are standing in a sort of circle, looking tired. "Let's move it outside, people."

"I've got a headache," Vanisher complains loudly. "Heal me, golden kid!"

"There is some acetaminophen in the cabinet marked _Painkillers, _directly ahead of you," Dr. McCoy says, typing.

"Aceta-whatnow?" the tattooed man asks.

"Tylenol, dumbass," Elixir says. "We've been on the same team for two months now. It's _Elixir._"

"Whatever." Vanisher gets off the gurney, his nose wrinkled; he had half hoped to trick Elixir into healing the tumor. He heads to the cabinet and opens it.

_**POP!**_

_**RRRRUMMMBLEEE!**_

_**"**_You've _**GOT **_to be kidding me," Julian says.

_**"OH MY STARS AND GARTERS!" **_Dr. McCoy shouts. _**"MY LABORATORY!"**_

_**"VANISHER!" **_Logan roars.

"_**GRRR!" **_Vanisher snaps, the Tylenol bottle in his hand.

_**VVVT!**_

"Well…" Dr. McCoy adjusts his glasses. "That was most unusual."

"Not for us," Julian says. "That's like, the forty millionth Robocop I've seen today. I feel like I'm in a really bad Terminator movie."

He moves to the gurney and sits down on the edge; after a moment Laura takes the spot beside him.

"Can't this day just be _over?_" Julian asks, rubbing his face.

Laura hesitates, then reaches over and touches his shoulder uncertainly. He looks up, and she gives him a small smile.

"I am glad you are still here."

"Knock on wood, quick," Julian says.

"What does—" Laura begins to ask.

_**VVVT!**_

"Hey, that was _my _spot!" Vanisher yells at Julian, shaking the Tylenol bottle in the boy's face.

_**"GGHHNGG-!" **_Julian almost chokes.

"At least they weren't doing the nasty on it," Domino says.

"Will you freakin' shut up about that," Julian snaps.

"He fits right in with the rest of this team," Warpath remarks. "Dysfunctional as hell."

"Cut it out, guys." Logan.

"Should have given them a few seconds more," Vanisher says. "I bet—"

"_**STOP IT!" **_Logan roars. "We're on the clock here. Hank, any info?"

"Give me a few more minutes."

**…**

_June 23 12:42 Utopia, San Francisco_

"My word," Dr. McCoy breathes.

Everyone reacts. Warpath stops flipping his knife in his hand; Domino looks up from studying her fingernails; Julian and Laura both tense; Elixir opens his eyes; Logan stops leaning against the wall.

Vanisher continues to gaze into space, unconcernced.

"Got it, Hank?" Logan asks.

"Yes. The orders were programmed in the future—"

"Yeah, we _know _that!" Julian says.

"—by an almost seamless upload from another robotic being. Fascinating. The code is so complex…it seems like the uploaded was almost, well—"

"Sentient," Laura says. "It _was_ Bastion."

A moment of silence.

"Son of a bitch," Logan says. "Son of a _bitch._"

"Where was the robot when it was deployed?" Laura asks.

"Genosha," Dr. McCoy says. "In Magneto's old headquarters. It seems that this sentinel was part of a vast network of the same."

"Crap." Logan sounds worried. "He must be rebuilding the old sentinels there. This is—"

_**POP!**_

_**RRRUMBLEEE!**_

"_**VANISH—**_" Logan begins.

_**VVVT!**_

"Kill me now," Julian says.

"We are trying to avoid that," Laura comments.

Dr. McCoy sighs.

A few minutes later:

_**VVVT!**_

_**SLASH!**_

"_**AHHHG—" **_Julian reels backwards on the table, sprouting blood before he can even think about what is happening. Laura pales.

"Oh crap. Sorry!" Warpath exclaims, his knives still in the air as he surveys the damage.

Domino snorts. "Way to go, Jimmy."

_**"VANISHER!" **_Logan roars. "You fuckin' idiot!"

"_**WHAT?" **_Vanisher shouts back. "It wasn't my fault! I can't _control _what you guys do!"

Elixir reaches out and touches Julian's shoulder; there is a brief golden glow, and then the wound across his stomach disappears.

"This _is_ a bad dream, right?" Julian asks.

"I'm sorry. That was an accident." Warpath says, looking uncomfortable.

"You guys treat me like _crap!_ I'm _sick _of this!" Vanisher yells.

"**Okay. Well, we know where we're headed now." Logan looks at Vanisher. "Any time now."**

"**Forget it!" Vanisher says sulkily.**

"Dude, come

_**on!**_**" Julian says. "I can't handle this anymore!" **

"**Too bad!" he replies.**

Elixir taps his temple.

"I don't _care_about the tumor anymore! I'd rather die than be treated like this!" Vanisher grits his teeth, then pales as Laura gets off the gurney and walks towards him.

_**SNKKT!**_

"Are you certain?" she asks.

Vanisher blinks.

"Thanks, Hank," Logan says.

_**VVVT!**_


End file.
